Direct response media planning brings visibility and accountability into the advertising process by linking campaign performance to ad spend. So rather than focus on impressions or brand hunches, direct response media planning seeks to calculate advertising ROI by measuring “how many people respond to a message”. By measuring response and reporting results on a daily basis, direct response media planning seeks to clear away the “smoke and mirrors” that so often obscures the true effectiveness of any given campaign.
An experienced direct response media planner manages the research, planning and placement of all clients’ projects; assists in establishing appropriate media and budgets for clients, and establish good relationships with all media reps. The focus is on maximizing ROI while minimizing risk. This can be looked at in five components of direct response media planning: objectives, rationale, build, implement and track. Objectives means identifying and aligning on campaign objectives and targets to determine what the benchmark of success is. Rationale means analyzing data and market intelligence for a more holistic view of the target consumer. Build means creating a plan to maximize brand reach and return on marketing investment using a media buying agency. Implement means executing on the plan. And finally, tracking means assessing results to determine the results against objectives and use as input into the next round.
In the consideration set, direct response media planning has to consider the new world of integrated campaigns by including such diverse channels as national press, regional press, inserts, door to door, pay per click, direct TV, package inserts, radio, outdoor, online display, lead generation, email broadcast, direct mail and others. The objective regardless of channel is to get the right message, in the perfect place, expressed in the best way, to deliver results. And since there’s no point being results driven and focused on direct response advertising without the final score, tracking is probably the most critical of the five components.
One new tool is now available to help tally the final score in direct response media planning: LogicLab. LogicLab delivers on-demand access to powerful analytics backed up by advertiser and media data to calculate both campaign planning efficiency as well as efficacy of campaign results. Check out a 90-second video at www.logiclabinc.com.
